Michael Haneke

i figured the guy deserved his own thread. Funny Games, Code Unknown, The Pianist. All great films, all very fucked up and all make you think. I was meaning to go see his newest film, The Time Of The Wolf, at some foreign film festival in NYC, but i missed it b/c i suck. Has anybody seen it? Is it any good? I think he was supposed to be in attendance for a Q and A that night, i'm so pissed that i missed it now.

Just announced is his newest movie starring the lovely Juliette Binoche (who was in Code Unknown) called Cache, or in English, Hidden. IMDB plot synopsis: Georges, who hosts a TV literary review, receives packages containing videos of himself with his family -- shot secretly from the street -- and alarming drawings whose meaning is obscure. He has no idea who may be sending them. Gradually, the footage on the tapes becomes more personal, suggesting that the sender has known Georges for some time. Georges feels a sense of menace hanging over him and his family but, as no direct threat has been made, the police refuse to help. A number of clues point to the tapes coming from a guy who holds a grudge against Georges for some kind of childhood injustice. What happened back then? What is the tape-sender's aim exactly? Georges' confrontation with the past soon begins to undermine his very settled existence.

Has Haneke received acclaim in the states? Nobody I know has ever heard of him. his films were recommended to me by a woman i met on an airplane going to england, so maybe he's big in europe (?).

The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, ’cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, ’cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put ’em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put ’em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

I loved The Piano Teacher, but haven't seen anything else yet (in fact, I just missed a chance to see Funny Games on the big screen last week). The discomfort I felt during the Piano Teacher was unparalleled; it took me a while to decide whether I liked it. What I couldn't get out of my head, above all else, was the sudden cut to black at the end; that resonated quite stronly with me.

It also made me a huge fan of Isabelle Huppert, whose performance in that and Eight Women, and the difference between the two, blew my mind (although interestingly, she was playing almost exactly the same character in the two movies -- but the different approaches she takes to the roles is amazing).

Haneke's new film sounds fascinating. Lost Highway-ish, to be sure, but I'm sure he'll take it in a vastly different (and uncomfortably realistic) direction.

Out on May 28. Supposedly, it's Haneke's first french film, and a lot of fans seem to be mad at him because of it. What I've read from last year's Cannes was that the audience laughed and booed at the screening.

ghostboy, if piano teacher made you uncomfortable, you must see funny games. i nearly shit myself from frustration. there is ONE scene in particular (the remote control scene) that just makes you want to lunge at the screen and kill it.

The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, ’cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, ’cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put ’em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put ’em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

I first saw funny games on tv once, it was a real stroke of luck, I was zapping through then I heard that devilish song by john zorn/torture garden right at the beggining and it hooked me. I had trouble sleeping that night.

I saw la pianiste but I had such high expectations for it that it became dissapointing, I'll see it again when I get the chance.

Code inconnu is so-so. The theme is an always complicated one, and this film made me think a lot about things untill a week after I saw it. There is a brilliant BRILLIANT scene with juliette binoche in the subway. but I didn't enjoy it as much as funny games

"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie."-Emir Kusturica

I just saw Time Of The Wolf this afternoon, and it is BRILLIANT. One of the most beautifully illustrations of optimism (which was a shock, coming from Haneke) that I've ever seen. It's a little slow starting out, but bare with it...

What I've read from last year's Cannes was that the audience laughed and booed at the screening.

while trying to bring this thread back to the forefront, i'd also like to pose the question - how? time of the wolf blew me away. haneke has absolute control over the characters, the tone, and his audience throughout the whole thing. he takes the average middle class family and throws them into chaos in such a jarring and disturbing way. the only thing i can see people having a problem with is that he shows very sensational subject matter in a very straightforward way, which can throw a viewer off and make them look for faults in the film. i've shown several people haneke's films over this summer and they all can't take the power of his awesomeness. if you haven't seen any of his movies yet, you're only cheating yourself. go out now and see every one of them before cache comes out in the states. you will not be disappointed, and all your friends will think you're the shit for discovering this man's work.

The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, ’cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, ’cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put ’em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put ’em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

"Time of the Wolf" really started out well in the beginning, then it just kind of meandered to an end.

SPOILERS The murder at the beginning was well done and set the mood for the movie to go forward. Once they meet the kid, I thought the movie started to drag. Though I thought the anticipation and arrival of the train reminded me of a cross between "Day of the Dead" and "Road Warrior," which was totally unexpected and a welcome (but unintentional) homage from Haneke. And then there's the rape and the mystery of who the rapist was, which was an uneccessary distraction to the story. Two real horses get shot. And then it just kind of drags to an end. END SPOILERS

Was there an underlying meaning that I missed that other apocalyptic movies didn't cover? I think we all get that ordinary people put in extraordinary situations will yield unexpected results. Survival of the fittest, evolution takes over, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it.

The Piano Teacher: his best film. I love twisted love stories...and this one is really twisted.Funny Games: his second best, coming close behind The Piano Teacher. Completely terrifying. I watched this in 4 in the morning and I couldn't get my eyes off the screen.Time of the Wolf: this one is alright, a little slow. Maybe even a little overrated.Benny's Video: yeah, this one is great until he kills the girl. Then it just kind of looses focus. This or Time of the Wolf are my least favorite Haneke.

For you guys who know my tastes, would I like Haneke? I'm thinking of bb'ing Time Of The Wolf and Code Unknown... they're on cheap right now at amazon.co.uk

Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

just finished watching The Piano Teacher, and was shocked at how numb it left me. when the credits came up, i realized my leg was shaking, and was left wondering how long it had been. It left me with an uncomfertable feeling i have not felt from a film in a long time. i have Time Of The Wolf with me, and i'm prob going to watch that soon

i'm trying to track down code unknown and funny games. are they worth it?

just finished watching The Piano Teacher, and was shocked at how numb it left me. when the credits came up, i realized my leg was shaking, and was left wondering how long it had been. It left me with an uncomfertable feeling i have not felt from a film in a long time. i have Time Of The Wolf with me, and i'm prob going to watch that soon

i'm trying to track down code unknown and funny games. are they worth it?

funny games is, definitely. code unknown i think i need to see again, but i remember not being totally wowed with it.

The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, ’cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, ’cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put ’em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put ’em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls